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Kurt writes "Yet Another Society, through its newly formed Perl Foundation, is launching yet another fund drive to help support the Perl community. This year we will be supporting Damian Conway and Dan Sugalski. Damian will continue to work on a variety of Perl 5 modules and the design of Perl 6. Dan will continue his work on the implementation of Perl 6. More details are available at the Perl Foundation web site. Contributions are tax deductible, so donate today!" Many people will remember when we did this last year. I think it's been a roaring success. So go donate!

Perl? Isn't that the horribly complex programming language that people dread?

Yes, it is horribly complex.Look at that hello world program for example:print "Hello World!";

Now, that's some complex piece of software. Ok, let's say you want to have a list of strings. You could do so like that:@list = ("element1", "element2", "element3")

Well, just try to do the same in C.

Contrary to popular belief, Perl is easy. The thing is that you don't need to know everything to use it. Just a small subset will satisfy you.

People think it is hard because of the syntax and variety of constructs you can use. Well, for sure Perl is very flexible. But in no way it is a defficiency of the language. Perl is of course better suited to some tasks, as is any programming language.

And to those who think that all Perl programs are incomprehensible pieces of rubbish, remember this: Only Bad Programmers Code Badly in Perl(tm).

That certianly seems easy enough - it's just that there's a reputation for indecipherability. Maybe I'm just longing for the days of BASIC or Logo (I can remember learning those back in elementary school)!

Ok, let's say you want to have a list of strings. You could do so like that:
@list = ("element1", "element2", "element3")
Well, just try to do the same in C.

Actually, you wanna see something would really twist C's noodle? Try this one:

push(@list, "element${_}") for (1.. 20);

And of course, there are all sorts of cool things built into Perl. Like the "spaceship" operator, regexes, the || and && operators returning the last value evaluated (as opposed to 1 or 0), about five hundred ways to iterate/loop, $_, etc. There's also my personal favorites: lack of strong (any, really) typing and being able to create any type of variable/structure on the fly. They're also Perl's largest complaints, which is probably why I'm so partial to them. There's nothing like being able to just make a "$foo = 123;" statement and then append a string to it...:-)

But the orginal poster was correct: Perl can be very complex. It can also be very simple. It's like they say, Perl makes easy things easy and hard things possible. I love having enough rope to hang myself; others need more structure. To each his own. Choice is a very good thing.

We use Perl for many tasks where I work, and have several thousand lines of our own library files. I've found it to be very maintainable and incredibly flexible. Our coders write excellent, well-designed, readable code in Perl. Most of the time we take advantage of Perl's easy, powerful features so we can develop quickly. However, when we need to optimize, that's available as well. It's turned out to be a great tool for us.

Hobbiest programming languages like perl or basic are of course not suitable for professional purposes.
For this reason many computer scientist like very lowly of perl, basic or even lisp. But I think this is not right. Such easy to learn languages serve very well to make children interested in computers. This has many good effects.

Many of these children become addicted to computers and become in later life computer scientists or electrical engineers.

You have to read a lot when using a computer, so programming languages fight illiteracy.
The best example for this are the slashdot editors who improve their spelling by programming in perl.

It keeps the children off the street and keeps them from smoking crack or raid candy stores.

It make people buying computers and help the ruined computer industry.

I wonder if you could see them on Ebay? Maybe try selling of shares or something like that... probably againt their rules. I bet you'd get lots of visibility that way though.

A few questions:
Are they housetrained? If I buy both of them do I have to keep them in seperate cages or can I let them play together? Is there any sort of special diet I need to be aware of? (I'm not sure if the dollar store is still selling six packs of Jolt and I'm morally against "extreme" doritos)

... with the money they make out of selling Perl books, they could easily fulfil a goodly part of the modest $55000 [yetanother.org] they talk about on this page. (Yes, I know 55k was the *2001* budget.)

But dunno how much people will be willing to fork out to charity during tough times.. last year this time, things were much better.

"The list of contributors, as well as the work produced under the grant, are at http://yetanother.org/damian. BlackStar, Morgan Stanley, VA Linux, Manning Publications, O'Reilly and Associates, and Stonehenge Consulting also made major contributions. "

.. with the money they make out of selling Perl books, they could easily fulfil a goodly part of the modest $55000 [yetanother.org] they talk about on this page. (Yes, I know 55k was the *2001* budget.)

Because you think they are not already making money with O'Reilly?

And don't worry, someone will come up front to pay them, some companies are very interested in funding Perl development further.

Damien writes many great modules and great articles for the community. I don't know anything about the other guy but this is a great charity to give to so we can free up uber 3l337 Perl hackers from their day jobs to make Perl even better.

This article kind of got me thinking. Initially I thought it would be a great idea to send these guys some money for their hard work (and take a little tax deduction for myself on the side:) ). But then I saw some troll post about how he was glad that there was charity that didn't involve "starving black children."

That got me thinking: could the money be better used elsewhere? A $10 donation to a PERL hacker will buy him a six pack and some chips. $10 to the right humanitarian organization will literally save people's lives. But I guess that with donating to the PERL guys, you'll actually get to see some results from your charity. With most humanitarian groups you never know where the money goes.

And if we cut out all the extras* we spend money on we can feed a lot of people!!!

Donating to support these guys, and keep them working in the public interest benefits me immediately, as I use software that uses perl, or at the very least I use software that uses software that uses perl. They do good work for us as a software community, so turning around and supporting them has immediate, tangible benefits.

On the other hand, feeding the otherwise doomed throughout the world provides us with no real benefits and is indeed detrimental, as there are more people with whome we must then compete for oxygen, or at least listen to their bitching and moaning because we have something they don't, or don't worship their god, or do worship their god but not by the same name, or do worship their god by the same name but not in the same way, etc. etc. ad nauseum. Better that they just die and clear out the way for more sensible, or at least more civil, folks.

Besides, the Saudis have returned the favor of having the industrialized world make them incredibly wealthy by becoming a source of hatred and terrorism directed against the very cultures that made them rich. What makes you think helping some other disadvanted sop with free handouts is going to have any better effect down the road.

Yes, I just got done watching the Osama tape and it shows.:-/ Quoting a old film: "fuck the doomed"[1]

I hate to sound like an advertisement, but as a rule I'm probably 2-300% more likely to donate money if people use the uber-easy Amazon Honor system. I don't have to give anyone new my personal information, it all happens in a few quick clicks, and it doesn't have fits with my debit card like PayPal does (they require a 1 time refunded charge to verify the card since it isn't linked to a billing address like a credit card is - I know it's for my own good, but knowing that it would take a month to process always saps my will.)

In this case I might go against my set ways, but if they'd set up an Honor System account I wouldn't be writing this note right now, I'd be donating!

Especially because I hate to use credit cards/love to use my debit card, I like sharing the card number as few places as I can get by with. That 15% they lose is the cost of my piece of mind and the convenience of my donation. (Though, like I say, I'll probably make an exception in this case, but that doesn't mean I don't reserve my right to grumble about it.)

I ordered a Tim Conway awhile back because he was on clearance. The first sales rep didn't even know they still had one around. Well, they sent me a Damian Conway instead. I couldn't get him to do the "Dorf" bit, and he wouldn't wear stupid clothes or talk like a Norwegian at all. I tried to return him, but they wouldn't take him back because when I opened the box, I automatically agreed to their EULA which was inside.

Finally, after several weeks of complaining they let me ship him back for an exchage. Except they accidentally sent me Conway Twitty this time. Actually I'm not so sure it was an accident. Anyway, Conway Twitty happily does a norwegian accent so I'm fairly satisfied. Except he keeps trying to seduce my grandma...

Perhaps the Perl community could calculate some recommended annual contribution per line of code for companies that use Perl. (E.g. 100k lines of code at $0.01/line/year = $1000.) Do some comparisons with how much companies pay for commercial compilers compared to how many lines of code they have to show them that they are getting a good deal (applying corrections for the absence of tech support and manuals not being included in the price.)

Of course, the Perl Foundation is not the only ligitimate recipient of such contributions.

The more examples I see of this the more I've come to see that the open-source
development model is getting less and less credible as a way
to do large-scale projects.

Developing software using the proprietary model
may not always produce the greatest code, but there's no doubt
that it provides a good income
to thousands of developers with average skills that allows them to support their families.

Developing software using the proprietary model may not always produce the greatest code, but there's no doubt that it provides a good income to thousands of developers with average skills that allows them to support their families.

Thanks for pointing this out. For some of us around here, coding is our day job!

How is this a failing of the "open source development model"? If anything, it looks like a success.

I read it as an acknowledgement that both men have done good things in the past, and that sponsorship would allow them to produce more work at the same (or greater) levels of quality.

If either Dr. Conway or Dan were *begging* for money, that would be one thing. This, however, wasn't their idea. I suspect they'd keep doing what they're doing anyway. Well, except for the Damian World Tour.:)

Back-up folks. Soliciting contributions to fund the work of major contributors to the significant development of a great tool is in no way a sign of failure. It's a time tried model that has brought us a lot of great advances in a multitude of other areas. Here's a great example: A pharmaceutical company gives a research grant to a university professor to conduct a study or work on a treatment for a specific condition that he/she/it may not otherwise be able to dedicate time to. Yeah, I know, there are attendant patent issues and all that; but the idea is still sound. Some life saving drugs that were produced on the same model:

I suppose I have a slightly different perspective on
this than most folks on slashdot. I teach the one
and only Perl course at Monash University. Damian's
office is three doors down the hall from mine (when
he's in his office at all, which isn't often). I had
the good fortune to be taught by Damian when I was
an undergrad.

On one hand: This is great for Perl. Anyone who
has dabbled in the language knows that Damian
has Plans for Perl what we mere mortals can never
truly understand. I'm still drooling over the
thought of a proper switch statement in
Perl. As for curried expressions, well, if they're
anything as good as curried chicken, I'm all for it.

On the other hand:
There's a whole generation of Monash University
students growing up without having the joy of
being taught by Damian. The poor things are
getting substandard teaching (well, actually,
they're probably getting standard teaching; what
I know they're not getting is superstandard
teaching), and they are graduating without
the fond memories of the acted-out-in-lectures
singles-bar analogy for
C++ polymorphism. (You Monash graduates know what
I'm talking about.)

On the gripping hand:
I'm easily the next-best Perl programmer to
be teaching at Monash University. With Damian out of the
way, it's only a matter of time before total
domination of Monash is mine . . .

I had a physics lecturer like that once - describing how in a semiconductor the lonely holes and electrons would meet and annihilate each other in a burst of passion. A great teacher is a joy to behold.

I enjoy teaching when I get the chance, but I know I'm way short of these heights. I've volunteered to do some mathematics and astronomy teaching for the local 'gifted kids' program to keep my hand in. Teaching *and* perl programming - the ideal job:-).

Ah well, time to stop wasting my employer's time by posting to slashdot and instead to continue wasting it by writing Perl programs to generate random sentences in English and Latin.